Follies (Ca) (wiki)
Francois and Julie have been coasting for a while now. Sixteen pretty good years under their belt and two adorable daughters, but somewhere under the calm, day to day waters, dissatisfaction stirs.
The touch paper is lit during a conversation which can only be described as 'frank and liberated' during a dinner with Francoir's younger and less embaggaged friend and his partner. Stirring something within him, he makes a pitch for a more open relationship to try and get back the spark.
But choices are many and varied in this new world, and the rules carefully laid down at the start may end up biting him in the backside, safe word or not.
Follies is not for the faint hearted, sexytime-wise. A lot of bare flesh (and not just in pairs) is on show as these guys explore their kinks, and they're far from alone in what appears to be a super-liberal suburb somewhere in French Canadia. It would seem that North (North) America is quite the hot bed of people getting it on in all sorts of ways behind closed doors through into the small hours.
The film explores this and it's relation to polygamy, and asks the question, if you were to let it all go, to really see what there is out there, so see what it is that got your juices fizzing, would you go for it, and what happens to that which went before? Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go into a darkened room. 7.5/10
A Poet (Col/Ger/Swe) (wiki)
Oscar Restrepo is a child, stunted from without and within by his mother's willingness to do everything for him, and Oscar's own inability to do more than the absolute minimum otherwise needed to live. He drinks to a stupor, has no job, and his ex-wife and daughter want nothing to do with him.
Things were not always this way, as his two published poetry books attest, but they were a long time ago, and Oscar is a shadow of the man that wrote them. The rut he comfortably resides in while he perpetually promises the waiting world a third tome is deep, with cushioned edges.
But his sister who puts him up in the spare room has had enough. Use what little talent you have to teach poetry, or find somewhere else.
Reluctantly he accepts, but discovers amongst the disinterested faces a kindred spirit in Yurlady, a quiet young student with an aptitude for poetry. Fired by his discovery, Oscar makes it his goal to nurture the talent, but his immaturity and impulsiveness to skip doing things by the books is about to land him in hot water.
A Poet is a tragedy with a dark comic edge. Amateur actor Ubeimar Rios, seemingly plucked off the street and stuck in front of the camera, is a perfect fit as a man-child barely in control of his existence, bringing a lonely fragility to the part that felt written for him.
It is a bit heavy on subtitles, especially when Oscar is drunkenly arguing his point with anyone who will listen, so it's a good idea not to sit too close to the screen, but beyond that, it's a fascinating portrait of a good man limited by his own inadequacies. 7.5/10
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